Many Internet applications allow users to view a map of a geographic area. A user enters one or more locations, and the application displays the one or more locations on a map containing the one or more locations. Buttons around the periphery of the map allow the user to navigate in the direction of the button, and zoom in or out of the map.
Although maps received over the Internet are helpful, the user interface leaves much to be desired. For example, the buttons take up screen space that causes the map to have a size that is smaller than the available size of the user's computer screen. Second, when the user presses a button, the page reloads in a discontinuous fashion, for example, by suddenly displaying a zoomed in or zoomed out version of the map, causing the user to lose his or her orientation. The user is limited to moving in a direction corresponding to a button (for example, corresponding to North, East, West or South), requiring the user to zigzag around the map to move it into a position the user desires. The user is also required to move the map in the increments established by the author of the application: the user has no control over how far in the indicated direction the view of the map will move. Finally, when one or more of the locations the user specified move off the view of the map, the user has no idea where they have gone relative to the view of the map or how far away from that view they are.
What is needed is a system and method that can allow a map to be displayed at a size that does not require it to be shrunk to accommodate navigation buttons, that does not cause a page reload when the user presses a button, that provides a wide range of motion both in terms of direction and distance moved, and can indicate where locations not being displayed on the map are relative to the map, and their distance from the view of the map.